MacArthur’s Racer Felter is safe at second during the early innings of Saturday’s title game in the Bo Bowman Tournament at Lawton High School’s Paul Wilson Park. Making the tag is Elgin’s Jaken Snider. The Highlanders managed to scratch out a 2-1 victory to claim the title.
Michelle Artzberger couldn’t believe his luck.
The senior hit a shot to deep left field, and Elgin outfielder Holden Bartosovsky appeared to make an impressive diving catch to hand MacArthur its second out of the fourth inning. However, to the shock of most spectators and Artzberger, that wasn’t the case.
Bartosovsky, according to the umpire, failed to corral the fly ball, trapping it under his glove just moments after it touched the turf.
The controversial ruling served as the Highlanders’ saving grace, for Artzberger scored the gamewinning run three plays later on a Rylan Webb single, leading Mac to a 2-1 win over the Owls in the Bo Bowman Tournament championship game at Lawton High on Saturday night.
“I thought I was out, so I was just kind of jogging around and getting ready to go back to the dugout, but then my coaches started yelling that I wasn’t out, so I just went back to the bag,” Artzberger said. “I couldn’t really tell because all I saw was the back of his body and his glove, so I didn’t know.”
Jake Meents struck out Mac infielder Jack Smith two batters after the sequence, so had the catch stood, the Highlanders might not have tallied that terminal run.
There were multiple vantage points of the play, and though Owls coach Levi Garrett didn’t have a perfect view from the right-field dugout, he said he trusts Bartosovsky.
“It was way out in left field, so I couldn’t tell, but I’m going to fight for my guys just like (Mac coach Rodney DeLong) fights for his guys,” Garrett said. “All I can go by is Holden said he caught it, so I’m taking his word for it. It’s a tough call for anyone, but it is what it is. Baseball has been won and lost for a 100 years on those types of plays, and there will be other games just like it.”
DeLong, who was standing near third base, was much closer to the play as it unfolded, and he said he believes the umpire made the correct call in a tough situation.
“I saw it hit the ground,” DeLong said. “(Bartosovsky) made a great effort to get to that ball, but he trapped it. We got lucky — that was a break. Sometimes those calls will go against you, and it happened to kind of springboard us in that inning. Sometimes you gotta get a break here and there, and we caught one right there, and it was big.”
The hit was the first of three in the inning for Mac (14-1).
Dueling pitchers
The controversy increased Elgin’s motivation and urgency, but the Owls (13-7) couldn’t connect on Artzberger’s pitches.
Artzberger delivered 10 strikeouts and allowed only two hits, throwing strikes on about 69 percent of his 105 pitches.
Although Artzberger faced plenty of pressure in keeping Elgin from either tying or taking the lead, he continually dealt the Owls disappointment from the mound with impressive poise.
“There was really no pressure, I just tried to go out there and relax and do my job,” Artzberger said. “I wanted to keep doing what I was doing.”
Elgin’s final hit came in the third inning on a Meents single to right field, putting Bartosovsky in position to steal home plate on the following play for the Owls’ only run of the evening thanks to a Mac throwing error.
Meents recorded the only other Elgin hit as well, a single to center field in the first inning.
DeLong said Artzberger retained his composure on the mound despite a challenging first inning.
“In the first inning, he threw a bunch of pitches, they fouled off a bunch of pitches and he was kind of missing,” DeLong said. “He settled down and got into a groove, and he had really good command of all his pitches. He was getting ahead with his slider and curve ball, and he spotted his fast ball really well, too. He was spot on with his location.
“I’ve seen Michelle when he’s in that zone, and guys just don’t hit him. If you don’t get to him early and he gets in that groove, you’re not going to get him. He’s our big horse, and we ride him.”
Although Meents suffered the loss on the mound, he had an impressive showing as well.
The 5-10 sophomore struck out nine batters, tallying 57 strikes on 95 pitches while allowing only five hits.
Perhaps his most crucial strikeout came in the sixth inning.
With two outs already to his name and facing runners on second and third, Meents struck Smith out for a third time, giving the Owls one more chance to erase their one-run deficit.
Artzberger spoiled the comeback in the next inning, but Garrett said that doesn’t take away from what Meents accomplished in a losing effort.
“He’s an up-and-coming young pitcher for me, and in a couple of years, everybody is going to know who he is,” Garrett said. “He’s got incredible stuff, and that was only his second start — he beat Weatherford last week — he just needs innings and time to grow. They were on their heels just like we were.
“He gave us a shot to win this thing. It’s a tough break that he comes out with a loss while throwing that well, but that’s baseball.”
Trey Longacre drove in the game’s first run for Mac with an RBI groundout to second base in the first inning, scoring Racer Felter.
Revenge factor
DeLong said the revenge factor played a role in his team’s two victories over Elgin this season. The Owls swept Mac with two wins over the Class 5A power in 2017, one of which came in the Bo Bowman Tournament.
The roles reversed this year, for Saturday’s win marked the Highlanders’ second of the month over Elgin. Mac defeated the Owls, 12-4, on March 16 behind a seventh-inning grand slam from Artzberger.
“They were our nemesis last year,” DeLong said. “They were tough on us. They’re a good program, and we’re going to have battles from here on out. We’ll go head-to-head, and it’s going to be fun. It’ll be a lot of good games.”
Up next
In their 15 games this season, the Highlanders haven’t experienced much difficulty.
Aside from a 3-1 road victory over Norman North on March 9, there hadn’t been much adversity until the Bo Bowman Tournament.
Mac played two of its closest games of the season during the three-day extravaganza, including a 6-4 loss to an opportunistic Marlow squad.
However, the competition will only improve as the season moves along.
The opponents on the remaining schedule sport a combined record of 113-63, whereas the foes from the first half of the season accumulated a 73-70 record.
Undefeated squads Heritage Hall (14-0) and Bishop Kelley (11-0), as well as the defending MaxPreps national champion, Shawnee, are among the teams awaiting the Highlanders later this month.
Before Mac can look ahead to those squads, though, it must first take care of district opponent Altus (4-13) in a road game at 5 p.m. today.
“We’re going to play a brutal schedule,” DeLong said. “Our schedule is going to get a lot tougher. We’ll have to play our best baseball, but I think we have a chance. It’ll stretch out our pitching, kind of like it did in this tournament, but it’s going to be interesting, for sure. What we’ve done up to now should prepare us for when we go play those guys. We’re ready to play just about anybody.”
Elgin returns home today at 5 p.m. for a district matchup against highly touted Tuttle (18-3).